I'm a Greek bank teller and piano teacher living in North Carolina. I love cooking traditional, home-style Greek food. Recently, I've gotten into baking cookies, cakes, and muffins. For every major holiday, my Dad likes to make pastichio. Well, there's so much going on (making the bechamel and adding things at just the right time, layering, etc.) that he inevitably makes a mess! It's great fun, and we all clean up afterwards. We have friends and family members that grow vegetables, and often have so many that they give them to us. Before they go bad, we always have fun figuring out how to use them creatively. Lately, I've been much more daring in the types of Greek foods I made. Spanakopita and gemista (stuffed peppers and tomatoes) were difficult, but worth the effort! Also, I've perfected my green (spinach) ravioli dough and stuff it with kalamata olives, feta, and ricotta. The sauce is like your typical alfredo, but I use feta instead! It's delicious. The first time I tried to make croissants, I tried following a vegan recipe using Crisco. Wow, they turned out hard and nasty! Another time, I made up some cookie dough to take cross country. The plan was to bake it there and bring the cookies to a pot luck. Well, even though I thought I packed the dough okay, it must have spoiled in the car during the trip. They came out gross and crispy. Haha! Once, I accidentally bought salted butter to make koulourakia (Greek cookies). They were... salty. :)